Saturday, May 12, 2012

Constructor: Caleb Madison

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none

Word of the Day: CRYSTAL SET (28D: Early radio receiver) —

A crystal radio receiver, also called a crystal set or cat's whisker receiver, is a very simple radio receiver, popular in the early days of radio. It needs no battery or power source and runs on the power received from radio waves by a long wire antenna. It gets its name from its most important component, known as a crystal detector, originally made with a piece of crystalline mineral such as galena.[1] This component is now called a diode. (wikipedia)

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Not among my favorite puzzles by Mr. Madison, for a couple of reasons. First, there's just less sparkly fill and more awkward stuff like ALTERANT (17A: Change-producing agent) and STENTORS (59A: Their voices really carry). Loved BOB BARR (11D: 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate) and really want to love THIRTY ROCK (since I watch it and all) (31A: Emmy-winning show of 2007, '08 and '09) (not the greatest clue), but no one anywhere ever has written that THIRTY out. Now, writing out numerals is a crossword tradition, so the answer isn't exactly wrong, but instead of inducing a "wow" reaction, it got more of a disappointed sigh (disappointed at myself for not getting it more quickly, disappointed that a marquee answer has this numeral/word issue). The other thing that brought me down, was the SE corner, which just blinded me with stuff I didn't know. I thought the difficulty level was pretty normal for a Saturday, maybe even slightly on the easy side, until I got down there. Never heard of CRYSTAL SET, NATHAN (42D: Annual George Jean ___ Award for Dramatic Criticism), or ATTO- (51D: Quintillionth: Prefix), and since they all crossed the not-so-common STENTORS, that corner Wrecked me. So much so that I started doubting stuff that was obviously right, e.g. U.S.S.R. (52D: Locale in a Beatles title) Having all my ignorance concentrated in that one tiny corner was annoying—more my problem than the puzzle's, I guess, but when the tough stuff is just "???" and not "wow," then I'm left a little disappointed. To be completely fair, my biggest problem down there was my complete inability to see how a third-person singular verb could end -US (50A: Starts to stagnate). Brain just kept going "has to be wrong has to be wrong has to be wrong." When I finally (and I mean finally) got PLATEAUS, I think I may have said "(You) idiot!" aloud to myself. At myself.

Several choice gimmes made this puzzle feel relatively easy at first. Too bad BOB BARR and SOON-YI cross (16A: André and Mia adopted her), because I knew them both instantly (better to have my gimmes spaced out—for maximum traction). Also knew A-LINE DRESS (38A: 1955 Dior debut), which somehow got me all the way into the NW. LEE TIDE off the -DE (4D: It goes whichever way the wind blows) and (more impressively) LYRIST off the -ST (5D: Apollo, for one). Confused AVAST and ABAFT (6D: Sailor's behind), but that didn't last long. Didn't know POLA, but it didn't matter—all her crosses were gettable/inferrable (2D: ___ Debevoise, Marilyn Monroe's "How to Marry a Millionaire" role). Loved GUN FOR HIRE (7D: Piece offer?), which allowed me to get RACIER (26A: More likely to be bowdlerized), which beforehand had just been sitting there as -ER. Loved seeing Jerry ORBACH in the puzzle (20A: 1969 Tony winner for "Promises, Promises")—his son Tony is a frequent crossword constructor and all-around nice guy. Hey ... [Tony winner ...] ... and his son's name is Tony. I just got that. Not that there's anything to get, it's a coincidence, but still: there it is. I got Michael STEELE without any crosses (58A: 2009-11 Republican National Committee chairman)—I know him best from his frequent muppet-form appearances on "The Daily Show." He is Reince Priebus's predecessor (which would've made an interesting clue).

ALAR is often in the puzzle, so I got it off the first "A" (46A: 1989 E.P.A. target) but nearby NINES was not nearly so easy (42A: Nearly flawless bodies?). I had -INES and had to run the alphabet (the only way I got enough crosses to infer NATHAN). FETA and FIRE ANT were just good guesses (40A: Tiropita ingredient + 40D: Producer of the venom solenopsin). Clearly I don't know the key words in either of those clues. And SOYS really feels like its missing its SAUCE (53D: Kikkoman options). Really really feels that way. But getting it wasn't hard, so no harm done. Wish I'd liked this one better, but a flawed Caleb Madison puzzle is still a pretty good thing.

Tony Orbach can swear his name is just a coincidence all he wants, but I know a drunken bet when I see one. I got my name when my father took umbrage at someone saying that all of his kids would be losers, just like him. Yeah, old Pops, got the last laugh.

Hey, now that I'm thinking about him, anyone available to give me a lift to Attica from NYC Sunday morning? I'd like to visit him.

Enjoyed it. Probably a bit less that Friday's puzzle, but still a ton of fun. More easy-medium here.

1A was UNDERAGE to start, perhaps subconsciously in honor of our constructor's tender years. 2D POLA, and, for that matter, 23D LOLA, were unknowns, the latter being Naticked with LINDT. Guessed right.

I don't get 1D SHAM.

Gimmes: ABAFT, SOON YI, CRYSTAL SET, STENTORS, HANGER, GET ANTSY, and not much else. Had ABEND @ 22A - still think it is a better answer. Ulrich?

Again, quite a range of knowledge expressed in the answers. If Natan and Caleb are intentionally going mano a mano to impress us, may they continue all year. These two puzzles were GOOD.

So cool to see BOBBARR in the grid.Anyone who wanted Ron Paul in the primary should take a good hard look at Taos resident and Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson.A more honest human you will not find. So generous with his time that he will stand around talking to adversarial hippie kids until they get bored or are won over.He really is amazing.He has that weird libertarian trait where no matter heated an argument might get, he just calmly explains his position and makes himself understood.

Easy in most areas, but Nathan and the plateaus gave me a lot of trouble.

I also started with "under age". Don't know Bob Barr, but with a name like that I had better memorize him. Love stentors and plateaus, and clues for XII, gun for hire and nine. Hope never to see alterant again.

We're leaving for Heathrow in about an hour, and a long flight back to the US. A seasoned traveller friend told me once that she compared intercontinental travel with "staying in bed with a good book". I've got the book!

Mixing up my languages and revealing ignorance - der Mond is the moon, for which NACHT is a fine answer. I was confusing it with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo (The World). Which I presume would more likely be read in the evening (ABEND) than at night (NACHT).

All was well until Caleb went to the moon to find ALTERANT, in the upper left. It sounded familiar enough to suffice as a good guess but had never before seen the light of day in my house.

Which is a backhanded way of saying that the puzzle, absent that petty gripe, was a clever, welcome, challenging piece of work, keeping the Saturday puzzle’s gnarly but fun reputation intact.

Favorites abound but, in choosing just one, it would have to be GUNFORHIRE with TOURNEYS and ISTHATSO pulling down place and show and KIAS, HONEYBUN and NBAGAME (expected it to be team, not game) earning honorable mentions.

Many of the proper nouns like LINDT, STEELE, BOBBARR, (love those double letters), THIRTYROCK and ALINEDRESS came easily, NATHAN and POLA not so much.

Nice puzzle from a Gen Y’er who thankfully didn’t try to overwhelm us with generational flotsam and jetsam.

@chemist: A fast shuffle is a cheating act; so I started with ScAM, but HONEYBUN corrected the H. Although a SHAM is also a cheat, I still think scam is closer. ALTERANT strikes me as a made-up word. NATHAN and the PLATEAUS would be a great name for a band.

@"Winner" Jones--My brain must be in slow mode this morning. I don't get the irony in the name "Tony Orbach." Oh--because later on he won Tony awards? OK--gotcha.

Liked the relief of finally getting PLATEAUS. Had to eliminate "cons" and "dogs" in favor of PIGS in 50D to see it. HANGER took me a stupidly long time, as did THIRTY ROCK. My favorite corner, and the last to fall, was the NW, with MASTIFFS, HONEYBUN, and LYRIST. I do like that LOLA and POLA are sharing this puzzle.

The second time in a row that I'm finished with a late-week puzzle early enough to say something that hasn't been said yet--perhaps those young constructors are not so bad for geezers like me after all (I'm 71 as of today)

@retired_chemist: Yes, "the moon" can be "der Mond" in German, but it can also be "des Mondes", "dem Mond(e)", "den Mond" depending on the context in which it appears. In this case it's the direct object of a transitive verb and MUST BE "den Mond". I see no way around it. I mean, "annus" means "year" in Latin, but you would not say "per annus" if you want to say "per year" in Latin, right? You'd say "per annum" because that's what the preposition requires.

Why use the direct German article at all? Why not say simply "...see the Mond"? More generally, do not use noun phrases of highly inflected languages that are not nominatives (i.e., can be inferred from the dictionary) if you do not know the language!

BTW I needed crosses to decide between ABEND (evening) and NACHT (night).

"Soys" is absolutely in the language of Asian cookery. A Chinese recipe might call for "dark soy" and "thick soy." Thai recipes often specify "thin soy." Japanese dishes might use both "dark soy" and "light soy." The word "sauce" would be noise.

Interestingly (to me anyway), the words "soya" and "soy" in English come (via Dutch) from "shoyu," the Japanese word for soy sauce. Dutch traders who brought soybeans to Europe from Japan in the seventeenth century misunderstood the meaning. Soybeans in Japanese are "daizu."

Felt easy, until it didn't. Flew through NE, great plains, SW. Then got seriously hung up on SE (finally fell when I saw PIGS and PLATEAUS), and NW killed me. Had RED TIDE too confidently. Didn't know LEE could apply to tides, but something was definitely wrong up there. Also wanted underAGE but that's an adjective and the clue is for a noun. Had to have the app clear my mistakes. Even after I saw it, ALTERANT crossing SHAM (never heard of "fast shuffle), POLA (never saw the movie) and LYRIST (he played a lyre?) seemed a bit unfair. Well, it's a Saturday after all.

Caleb risks becoming one of those constructors from whom we expect so much that we are disappointed half the time; see @Rex's initial comment. There were a lot of fun answers in this one - I loved A-LINE DRESS, GUN FOR HIRE, TUBING, GET ANTSY, IS THAT SO, XII, etc. I too wanted UNDER AGE at 1A - not so much because Caleb is young, but because it's a cleverer answer.

Because of the under age problem, I had to look up POLA (I mean, Nola sounded just as good to me!), so DNF, or FWG to be charitable. Other writeovers were rockeT before LYRIST, RObo before ROTE, nanO before ATTO (need to learn my Greek numberical prefixes).

I also need to learn all the KIA models, we're bound to see more of them.

@mac - "Nathan and the Plateaus" would make a great band name. I guess that's whay you meant!

NW fell first, then very little for quite a while. Tried to force ISTA into 29D, which implied --EDTO for 36A.Being a techie, I liked CRYSTALSET, and ENIAC (common CW fodder).

One tends to "reach" PLATEAUS so stagnation was counterintuitive to me.

Last to go was the NW, as I had INTEL for ENIAC and CLOSE for TIGHT. Don't remember BOBBARR. Finally recalled from HS German class that der Mond was the moon and got NACHT. Jerry ORBACH was one of my favorite actors (RIP). From somewhere in the dim recesses came the memory of a stint on Broadway.

LOLA was, if one recalls the lyrics, a MAN not a woman ("...I'm a man, and so is Lola..."), but I got it anyway...

I had the most trouble with the NW. First, although I actually had an accurate visual of BOB BARR, I could not remember his name for the longest time, but finally got it. Second, I had BRACKETS for 10D, which I actually think is a better answer than TOURNEYS, because the latter seems to be used less frequently than TOURNAMENTS.

I saw Jerry Orbach, Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon in the original production of Chicago, and the movie could not possibly top those three. His broadway career was amazing.

Too many obscurities in this puzzle to be fun, though. HTG in every quadrant. I did like FIRE ANT crossing GET ANTSY.

@Ulrich, Happy birthday! The der Mond clue may be wrong, but signaled German so helped me get NACHT.

@Sparky, a while ago I got into the habit of always copying my comment before hitting publish. That way if Blogger does its usual irritating thing, I can just paste. It has saved me hours of frustration.

Hope to see a few of you at today's L.A. Crossword Tournament at Loyola Marymount in the Hilton building. Should be very fun. Gotta go!

Recall that Tuesdays puzzle's theme was adding an H (e.g., best seller became BEST SHELLER). H is the symbol for hydrogen. Can you add or remove an H to/from a molecule to get another kind of molecule? Is there a name for this?

BTW, do you know Harold Petersen who taught Chemistry at URI? I used to work for him.

This was a toughie for me. Could not for the life of me remember that the Libertarians selected BOBBARR to represent them - and I'm from Georgia!! I still can't believe that hypocritical lunatic was their best option. I used to mute him whenever I saw him on the news.

Hard for me, got the W and SW pretty fast thanks to OCTAVO (I'm directing choir at school this year in addition to teaching math), but the rest was a big flop for me, until I pushed the cheat button and the following errors were highlighted:

stern for ABAFTpalS for ITEStolD all for SAIDYESSOONLI for SOONYILEEsIDE for LEETIDE

After I got rid of those, THIRTY ROCK became apparent, and the rest the puzzle fell rather quickly. But I haven't felt that helpless in weeks, and have resisted pushing the reveal errors button for the longest streak ever!

A fun puzzle by Caleb! Of course, I liked the confluence of names up in that NE, ORBACH/BOBBARR/SOONYI. Loved HONEYBUN, GUNFORHIRE and many of the less glamorous bits for the clues, like PIGS, FETA, LATTE, LOLA etc. Keeping true to my having the opposite experience of a puzzle from Rex, I knew CRYSTALSET + STENTORS right off - YES!! Take that, Parker!!

Amen, JaxinL.A.: original "Chicago" was fantastic - but FYI, Jerry did love the movie version. Speaking of that and Thirty ("30") Rock, someone had a line in the show recently that they'd seen a version of "Chicago" with George Wendt and Stephanie Powers - I suppose that could have given the originals a run for their money.

@"Winner" - Though I'm with you on the wishful thinking/self-fulfilling prophecy aspect of naming, I was named Anthony after my mother's father so, unfortunately, it really was just a coincidence. I do wish my father was still around, though - but I suppose I can take comfort he's not in Attica!

Thank you, @hazel, @Geometricus, and @Sue McC. I also thought this was really difficult, but I think I have only myself to blame. I DNF by a mile, but upon seeing the entire solution, I’ll call it very fair. Never heard of STENTORS, and ALTERANT was elusive, as was most of the NW.

My initial clockwise foray ended in northern California, where I dispatched all the language clues, was briefly thrilled, and then stalled.

My mysterious “plays out” for PLATEAUS held me up and I confidently had “toys” for SOYS thinking that “Kikkoman” was an offshoot of pokemon.

Thanks. I'm not sure I like theanswer. Except for the movie Ten,I don't think ten is usuallyused to rate bodies(the clue saidbodies, not body). Ten is used to rate diving, gymnastics and possibly otherthings I can't think of.

Thanks. I'm not sure I like theanswer. Except for the movie Ten,I don't think ten is usuallyused to rate bodies(the clue saidbodies, not body). Ten is used to rate diving, gymnastics and possibly otherthings I can't think of.

Happy Birthday @Ulrich. Enjoy your day. Thanks, @JaxinLA. I'll give it a try again. @JohnV and JenCT have tried to help in the past but I don't seem to get the knack.

Finished most. Missed SPILLAGE and ALTERANT. Had ORBACH and NATHAN; hoped for two others but that would be a theme. I don't think LINDT is gourmet but I am a big chocolate snob. (Will eat any during a real jones.) What show and song is cited? I thought of Damn Yankees. Stentorian voice gave me STENTORS. I really liked it Caleb.

Thanks everyone for the feedback/comments. I submitted this around a year ago on a challenge from BEQ to write a Manny Nosowsky-esque puzzle. This, (as Deb Amlen reported over on Wordplay) is a classic Nosowsky grid, and one I like a lot. The anti-triple stacks puzzle. Some notable clue changes on Will's part: 1-Across was "Liquid mess". I like Will's much better. 31-Across was "TV show about the fictional sketch-comedy program "The Girlie Show".

And the only change I was sad about, 42-Across from "Fillion of "Firefly"". His clue doesn't seem any less obscure.

I hope Will only puts me back-to-back to Natan forever. It'll be like Mantle and Maris, or George and Lennie from "Of Mice and Men". Just make sure not to take away Natan's rabbit.

This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.

All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)

Yes, that does sound like a band, Nathan and the plateaus. Sure it shouldn't be plateaux?

@Martin: Soya saus is a staple in most Dutch kitchens/fridges, but it's the thick, sweet Indonesian kind we call ketjap. The lighter and saltier kinds are now around too, of course. I actually know Dutch people who eat rice and pasta more than potatoes!

I liked PLATEUS too...I had tRansistors for CRYSTALSET, which kept that corner hidden for too long.Wanted fLATtens before PLATEAUS, so at least was on teh right track.Wanted to drop in PIGS or sowS at 50D, but the above-mentioned errors wouldn't let me.

OK - now really heading out for dinner and sunset.

@Rex - saw your post on my droid, grabbed my Uverse app, finally found justification for owning such a "smart"phone...was able to tell my home DVR to tape your segment, scant moments before airtime...thank heavens for modern technology!Will watch when I get home mid-week.